can you stake my heart?

chapter 1

{so this is chapter one! i have quite a few plans for this story... i've had this idea for a little over a year now, and i'm excited to finally be writing it! i hope you enjoy, this fic will be a little bit longer than my other ones!}

Frank sighed, running his hands through his hair. He glanced at the forming crowd around him, wondering what was the commotion. Swarms of people were filling the streets, gathering around a small stage. The stage usually kept the town crier, but the crowds for announcements were never this large. Frank figured it must have been a royal announcement. He shifted his feet, and started moving towards the crowd.

Pushing through various people, Frank neared the front of the stage. He looked up and saw royal guards. They wore the unmistakable symbol of the royal family, the Ways. Frank shuddered, realizing wherever royal guards were, the Ways were. Could the royal family really be here? It was rare for them to visit small towns such as Belleville, but not completely uncommon. Sometimes the family grew low on bloodlings, their personal blood stock.

In this age, royal families were almost completely consistent with vampires, the Ways being no different. Most of the time, these families took bloodlings, or blood donors, for their use. It wasn't as barbaric as it sounded, these bloodlings were practically servants of the family, yet more honorable. The Ways were known to wed their favorite bloodlings, making the villagers more willing to become a bloodling.

How these vampires picked their bloodlings, Frank didn't know. He just assumed they'd pick the prettiest girl in a town. The current royal family consisted of two brothers and their parents. Frank respected the younger of the two brothers, but from town gossip he noted that the older was a little untraditional. He never really paid attention to gossip, except for when it had to do with bloodlings because it involved Frank.

Frank was considered an Extravagant, or someone with pure blood. He always laughed at the name, because there wasn't anything extravagant about Frank. But apparently, pure blood is almost irresistible to vampires, making Frank a likely candidate for becoming bloodlings. However, Frank didn't worry. The only royals were male, and obviously neither would pick a boy to be their bloodling, that was completely unheard of.

However, Frank's heart stopped beating nonetheless when the royal guards announced their business.

"Hear ye, hear ye. As servants of the Royal Family, we are here to announce the selection of local bloodlings," the crowd murmured at this. Frank looked around and noticed girls fixing their hair, no doubt trying to look presentable and delicious to whichever vampire was present.

"The eldest of the Ways will now search the crowd and pick his choice," the guard announced, and the women started murmuring excitedly. Frank just rolled his eyes. From the side of the stage, a carriage sat. The door swung open, and an interesting looking man stepped out. Frank figured that must be the Way brother. His name was something strange, and he couldn't recall it at this moment.

It didn't take a detective to realize the vampire was disgruntled. He lazily stepped up the stage, rolling his eyes. He had long black hair, a strangely feminine face, and was wearing a quite strange outfit. He had a large velvety black cape on his shoulders, and a red blouse underneath. If Frank didn't already know he was a vampire, it wouldn't have taken him long to figure it out.

"Thank you, uh Cedrick was it?" The man said, clasping his hand on the guard.

"Uh, Christopher, sir," The guard answered, blushing. The vampire just laughed. He gave a pat on the guards shoulder, apparently too hard because the guard winced.